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Easy Death: Spiritual Wisdom on the Ultimate Transcending of Death and Everything Else
In 1983, the first edition of Easy Death appeared to wide acclaim. Many people in the professions associated with death and dying expressed their immense appreciation, and the book was hailed by death-and-dying pioneer Elizabeth Kübler-Ross as a “masterpiece.” The second edition of the book was published in 1991, bringing together more of Avatar Adi Da’s remarkable Wisdom about death given in the years since the first edition. As Adi Da Samraj essentially retired from active verbal Instruction in April 2000, this third edition of Easy Death stands as a summary communication of His Teaching on matters of life and death.
The contents of this new edition draw from both previous editions, from new Talks and Writings, and from the remarkable stories of Avatar Adi Da’s Spiritual Work with the living and the dying that has continued without cease since the second edition. The volume also contains several excerpts from Avatar Adi Da’s principal “Source-Text,” The Dawn Horse Testament Of The Ruchira Avatar, on the question of death. And perhaps the most significant additions to the third edition are the sections describing Avatar Adi Da’s own direct “consideration” and experience relative of the esoteric process of death and Realization.
If you are open to the Blessing that flows through the pages of Easy Death, you will find yourself drawn into a heart-conversation as alive and intimate as any secret exchange between Guru and disciple in ancient times.
–from the Editor’s Preface to the Third Edition
The contents of this new edition draw from both previous editions, from new Talks and Writings, and from the remarkable stories of Avatar Adi Da’s Spiritual Work with the living and the dying that has continued without cease since the second edition. The volume also contains several excerpts from Avatar Adi Da’s principal “Source-Text,” The Dawn Horse Testament Of The Ruchira Avatar, on the question of death. And perhaps the most significant additions to the third edition are the sections describing Avatar Adi Da’s own direct “consideration” and experience relative of the esoteric process of death and Realization.
If you are open to the Blessing that flows through the pages of Easy Death, you will find yourself drawn into a heart-conversation as alive and intimate as any secret exchange between Guru and disciple in ancient times.
–from the Editor’s Preface to the Third Edition
500 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 1983
63 people want to read
About the author
Adi Da Samraj
220 books25 followersAdi Da Samraj (AKA Da Free John), born Franklin Albert Jones, was an American-born spiritual teacher, writer, and artist, widely recognized as the founder of the new religious movement Adidam. His teachings, writings, and artistic expressions were deeply rooted in a commitment to radical nonduality, which he referred to as “the Bright” — the inherent, indivisible reality that transcends the egoic self. Adi Da taught that true spiritual realization is not something to be sought or attained but is already fully present and must be directly realized through the transcendence of separateness and the activity of seeking itself.
He wrote extensively throughout his life, authoring more than 75 books on spirituality, philosophy, art, and global peace. Among his best-known works are The Knee of Listening, an autobiographical account of his early life and spiritual realizations; The Aletheon, a summation of his spiritual instruction; and Not-Two Is Peace, a work addressing the global human condition and advocating for a radically new form of cooperative culture. His writings are considered by followers to be revelatory and are presented not as mere philosophy, but as direct communications of the spiritual reality he claimed to have fully realized.
Raised in the United States, Adi Da studied at Columbia University and later at Stanford University, where he developed a strong interest in literature, philosophy, and theology. Despite achieving academic success, he found intellectual pursuits ultimately insufficient for the depth of truth he sought. This dissatisfaction led him to explore a wide range of spiritual paths, including Zen Buddhism, Vedanta, and various esoteric practices. After years of spiritual searching and intense personal experiences that he described as revelatory, he began to teach others, presenting a radically different approach to spiritual life that emphasized immediate, intuitive recognition of the divine reality.
Central to Adi Da’s teaching was the concept of devotional recognition-response — the spontaneous turning of attention toward what he described as the living presence of the divine. He rejected conventional religious forms and techniques as inherently limited and emphasized a transformative relationship to the spiritual reality he embodied. His community of devotees, known as Adidam, formed around this core relationship and sought to live in accordance with the principles he articulated.
Beyond his spiritual teachings, Adi Da was also an accomplished visual artist whose work spanned photography, digital media, and mixed media installations. He referred to his aesthetic approach as “Transcendental Realism,” seeking not to represent the world but to provide a perceptual portal into the non-dual reality. His art has been exhibited internationally and received attention in both spiritual and contemporary art contexts.
Adi Da spent his final years in Fiji on Naitauba Island, a remote setting he regarded as sacred and conducive to spiritual practice. There, he continued to write, create art, and guide his devotees. His legacy continues through the Adidam community, which maintains his teachings and artistic work, promoting his vision of a new culture rooted in spiritual realization, radical truthfulness, and the transcendence of ego.
His life and work remain a source of devotion, debate, and philosophical inquiry, reflecting a bold and unconventional path toward the ultimate questions of human existence.
He wrote extensively throughout his life, authoring more than 75 books on spirituality, philosophy, art, and global peace. Among his best-known works are The Knee of Listening, an autobiographical account of his early life and spiritual realizations; The Aletheon, a summation of his spiritual instruction; and Not-Two Is Peace, a work addressing the global human condition and advocating for a radically new form of cooperative culture. His writings are considered by followers to be revelatory and are presented not as mere philosophy, but as direct communications of the spiritual reality he claimed to have fully realized.
Raised in the United States, Adi Da studied at Columbia University and later at Stanford University, where he developed a strong interest in literature, philosophy, and theology. Despite achieving academic success, he found intellectual pursuits ultimately insufficient for the depth of truth he sought. This dissatisfaction led him to explore a wide range of spiritual paths, including Zen Buddhism, Vedanta, and various esoteric practices. After years of spiritual searching and intense personal experiences that he described as revelatory, he began to teach others, presenting a radically different approach to spiritual life that emphasized immediate, intuitive recognition of the divine reality.
Central to Adi Da’s teaching was the concept of devotional recognition-response — the spontaneous turning of attention toward what he described as the living presence of the divine. He rejected conventional religious forms and techniques as inherently limited and emphasized a transformative relationship to the spiritual reality he embodied. His community of devotees, known as Adidam, formed around this core relationship and sought to live in accordance with the principles he articulated.
Beyond his spiritual teachings, Adi Da was also an accomplished visual artist whose work spanned photography, digital media, and mixed media installations. He referred to his aesthetic approach as “Transcendental Realism,” seeking not to represent the world but to provide a perceptual portal into the non-dual reality. His art has been exhibited internationally and received attention in both spiritual and contemporary art contexts.
Adi Da spent his final years in Fiji on Naitauba Island, a remote setting he regarded as sacred and conducive to spiritual practice. There, he continued to write, create art, and guide his devotees. His legacy continues through the Adidam community, which maintains his teachings and artistic work, promoting his vision of a new culture rooted in spiritual realization, radical truthfulness, and the transcendence of ego.
His life and work remain a source of devotion, debate, and philosophical inquiry, reflecting a bold and unconventional path toward the ultimate questions of human existence.
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March 5, 2020The first edition contains the writings and talks of a very wise scholar of Eastern none duality. It is no exaggeration to say that this scholar will become the best writer on Eastern ideas in the English language. Even as the Avatar, he got better at describing and writing, cliche free.
The second edition of the fantastic musings from the 1970's, imaginatively titled titled, Easy Death. The second edition would not be an improvement but for a few selections from the man's Dawn Horse Testament which are worth the few pence purchase.
Adi Da is easily the best spiritual writer in the English language, as attested in the Dawn Horse.
Sadly the scholarly writing by those outside the cult had fled the building at the time of the second edition.
The third edition is pure cultish to the extreme!
Was he a Divine being? More likely he a genius scholar, in fact a psychological genius who new the foibles of the human condition more than Wilber, Watts and the rest of the spiritually thirsty scholars.
The trouble with the East is that the enlightened person becomes all knowing, and he speaks from his 'direct experience' rather than from scripture. But all it takes then is for a brainy conman to memorize the scripture and pretend to be talking from direct experience. Who can tell the difference? Even Alan Watts could not. Alan Watts and many other scholars proclaimed this scholar not to be one, but an adept or an enlightened being! Watts read the first edition of Knee of Listening and proclaimed the author to be enlightened. What what was the evidence? Merely writing up what is in Scripture but in a brilliant English.
Ken Wilber also believed the scholar to not a mere scholar, but in fact an 'adept'. The Yoga scholar, Georg Feuerstein also had the same craving like Wilber and Watts. The craving is reading about enlightened people and wanting to come across a real one, right now! Osho makes the same point about Westerners travelling to India in search of an enlightened person. Osho says there is an obvious craving in these people which will dampen their critical mind and there are Baba's on the other side waiting to scoop up these Westerners with there spiritual hooks.
But hallelujah, says Watts, we now have an enlightened being born in the West!!
So Feuerstein writes an article on the grace of foot touching. The article is still online. Feuerstein sold himself as a devotee to the scholar who he thought was an adept, in fact, one who knows death and who can explain the process better than Jesus or the Buddha because he is here now, a real adept, a realizer, deserves his feet to be touched a thousand times! You too can enjoy this sort of praise from Feuerstein in the first edition of Easy Death.
The first edition of Easy Death has much writing from Feuerstein. In his very early books, Da Free John allowed others to share in his writings. And so the first edition of Easy Death has an intro by Kenneth Ring, the famous near death experience researcher.
I also own the second edition of Easy Death. That second edition was still written for an audience. So one picks up the book, and reads.
This third edition seems to be written strictly for his devotees. So there is a little chapter on his Divine Emergence blah blah, and a photo of the Avatar!
One new to all this business will be baffled. But if you are used to his later hyperbolic writings, which are enjoyable, then the book is still readable.
Surprisingly the printing and paper feels very cheap and the cover is terrible. I imagined no publisher will have a bad cover if they were confident that inside will be very well printed. But no. The publishers of the third edition seem to be so confident that this is the book of books that they printed it as cheaply as possible.
This is a shame. The plus points are chapters from his later books which are fantastic. But the best parts I feel are in the first edition. There you can also read Feuerstein along with Adi Da.
Overall the message is that we think this fleshy body is real and divinity is false. Adi Da Samraj points out that the body isn't real and the Divine Condition is who we are and so there is no death. However, this is a very Eastern idea and can seem nihilistic to the mind. Also, it is not original but, like I said, Adi Da Samraj was re-writing the East.
The talk titled Paradox of Reincarnation is great and is worth the purchase. Also the chapters on the Cosmic Mandala are breathtaking. But others have pointed out that Adi Da is not original. He is merely repeating what the Tibetans, the Buddhists and the Advaitins have been doing but in original and better language.
So you have to have faith in he East.
Like I said, he writes gloriously but most of what he writes is 'Me', 'Me', 'Me'!!
So overall we shouldn't trust this guy, or even trust the East.
How about the Near Death Experience? All Adi Da can say is that it is a hallucination or the ego dying to live. This is typical Richard Dawkins closed mindedness. Sadly even Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi is say the same thing.
I have some across many Buddhists and advaitins who completely dismiss NDE's and, say, the psychedelic experience, with the same atheistic hubris like they know something you don't.
But we only take the East seriously because it is trendy to do so.
A good counterweight to the East is Emanuel Swedenborg. There are some great video's online. Swedenborg is far from nihilistic and his system is just as clever as any Eastern system.
I wish you well in your search.
The second edition of the fantastic musings from the 1970's, imaginatively titled titled, Easy Death. The second edition would not be an improvement but for a few selections from the man's Dawn Horse Testament which are worth the few pence purchase.
Adi Da is easily the best spiritual writer in the English language, as attested in the Dawn Horse.
Sadly the scholarly writing by those outside the cult had fled the building at the time of the second edition.
The third edition is pure cultish to the extreme!
Was he a Divine being? More likely he a genius scholar, in fact a psychological genius who new the foibles of the human condition more than Wilber, Watts and the rest of the spiritually thirsty scholars.
The trouble with the East is that the enlightened person becomes all knowing, and he speaks from his 'direct experience' rather than from scripture. But all it takes then is for a brainy conman to memorize the scripture and pretend to be talking from direct experience. Who can tell the difference? Even Alan Watts could not. Alan Watts and many other scholars proclaimed this scholar not to be one, but an adept or an enlightened being! Watts read the first edition of Knee of Listening and proclaimed the author to be enlightened. What what was the evidence? Merely writing up what is in Scripture but in a brilliant English.
Ken Wilber also believed the scholar to not a mere scholar, but in fact an 'adept'. The Yoga scholar, Georg Feuerstein also had the same craving like Wilber and Watts. The craving is reading about enlightened people and wanting to come across a real one, right now! Osho makes the same point about Westerners travelling to India in search of an enlightened person. Osho says there is an obvious craving in these people which will dampen their critical mind and there are Baba's on the other side waiting to scoop up these Westerners with there spiritual hooks.
But hallelujah, says Watts, we now have an enlightened being born in the West!!
So Feuerstein writes an article on the grace of foot touching. The article is still online. Feuerstein sold himself as a devotee to the scholar who he thought was an adept, in fact, one who knows death and who can explain the process better than Jesus or the Buddha because he is here now, a real adept, a realizer, deserves his feet to be touched a thousand times! You too can enjoy this sort of praise from Feuerstein in the first edition of Easy Death.
The first edition of Easy Death has much writing from Feuerstein. In his very early books, Da Free John allowed others to share in his writings. And so the first edition of Easy Death has an intro by Kenneth Ring, the famous near death experience researcher.
I also own the second edition of Easy Death. That second edition was still written for an audience. So one picks up the book, and reads.
This third edition seems to be written strictly for his devotees. So there is a little chapter on his Divine Emergence blah blah, and a photo of the Avatar!
One new to all this business will be baffled. But if you are used to his later hyperbolic writings, which are enjoyable, then the book is still readable.
Surprisingly the printing and paper feels very cheap and the cover is terrible. I imagined no publisher will have a bad cover if they were confident that inside will be very well printed. But no. The publishers of the third edition seem to be so confident that this is the book of books that they printed it as cheaply as possible.
This is a shame. The plus points are chapters from his later books which are fantastic. But the best parts I feel are in the first edition. There you can also read Feuerstein along with Adi Da.
Overall the message is that we think this fleshy body is real and divinity is false. Adi Da Samraj points out that the body isn't real and the Divine Condition is who we are and so there is no death. However, this is a very Eastern idea and can seem nihilistic to the mind. Also, it is not original but, like I said, Adi Da Samraj was re-writing the East.
The talk titled Paradox of Reincarnation is great and is worth the purchase. Also the chapters on the Cosmic Mandala are breathtaking. But others have pointed out that Adi Da is not original. He is merely repeating what the Tibetans, the Buddhists and the Advaitins have been doing but in original and better language.
So you have to have faith in he East.
Like I said, he writes gloriously but most of what he writes is 'Me', 'Me', 'Me'!!
So overall we shouldn't trust this guy, or even trust the East.
How about the Near Death Experience? All Adi Da can say is that it is a hallucination or the ego dying to live. This is typical Richard Dawkins closed mindedness. Sadly even Nisargadatta and Ramana Maharshi is say the same thing.
I have some across many Buddhists and advaitins who completely dismiss NDE's and, say, the psychedelic experience, with the same atheistic hubris like they know something you don't.
But we only take the East seriously because it is trendy to do so.
A good counterweight to the East is Emanuel Swedenborg. There are some great video's online. Swedenborg is far from nihilistic and his system is just as clever as any Eastern system.
I wish you well in your search.
February 28, 2008
My boyfriend's grandmother in Australia died a month before we were due back to see his family. I wasn't sure how he'd take it, since death can bring about so many different emotions, but at the end of each chapter, he wanted me to keep going and said, "No, this is good." I found it really educational about death, our ideas fears and misconceptions about it. In some ways the most valuable things i read were what the living can do to serve the dying through the transition that occurs during the death process. If it can be said, this book helped to make sense out of death and at the same time teaches about life.
September 23, 2025
My favorite spiritual book on death and dying. But in some ways it's 3 books, because the three editions are different enough to all be worth reading. I've read all three multiple times now. Rereading the original edition most recently it struck me how it allows a peak into the development of the author's writing style over the years. I'm quoting the opening of one of my favorite essays to show the subtle changes but also the consistency of vision. I do prefer the 2005 version but both are great.
Where it ended up in the 2005 edition:
Death is a Perfect Insult
"Human beings live like knowers, striving toward absolute information-but death is a perfect insult that frustrates all knowing.
The death of an other convicts one of one's own death, and makes one wonder.
But no ultimate knowledge comes from this wondering.
Death is the frustration of knowledge.
The knowledge that another has died is itself the frustration of all knowledge.
You are not knowing in your wondering about death.
You are contemplating Mystery, the answerless Paradox of your living existence.
The death of another and the death of "I" confound the entire spectacle and consolation of knowledge.
Death is not the attainment of any state you can know.
Death is sacrifice.
The only way to come to terms with death is to come into a harmony with its process, its course.
And death is sacrifice-not knowledge or a way of ultimate knowledge.
Death is the sacrifice of knowledge, of independence, of experience, and of presumed individual self.
The observation of the death of an other and the conviction of your own necessary death are not means to knowledge but a means to sacrifice.
Sacrifice is the Law.
Knowledge (or separate independence) is that which is sacrificed.
If you truly observe and feel the death of an other, you are moved to live by Wisdom, rather than by knowledge.
Wisdom is alignment with the process of existence, which is Sacrifice.
But knowledge is only a reflection of how things work.
The knower is independent, not a participant in the process observed.
But Wisdom is always already confounded, relived of independence-such that there is no option but to surrender to the process of existence itself."
How it began from the 1983 edition:
DEATH IS A PERFECT INSULT
"We live like knowers, striving toward absolute information, but death is a perfect insult that frustrates all knowing. The death of an other convicts us of our own death, and makes us ponder. But no ultimate knowledge comes from this pondering. Death is the frustration of knowledge. The knowledge that an other has died is itself the frustration of all knowledge. We are not knowing in our pondering over death. We are contemplating Mystery, the answerless Paradox of our living existence. The death of an other and the death of "I" confound the whole spectacle and consolation of knowledge. Death is not the attainment of any state we can know. Death is sacrifice. The only way to come to terms with death is to come into a harmony with its Process, its way. And death is sacrifice, not knowledge or a Way of ultimate knowledge. Death is the sacrifice of knowledge, of independence, of experience, and of self.
The observation of the death of an other and the conviction of one's own necessary death are not a means to knowledge but a means to sacrifice. Sacrifice is the Law. Knowledge or secure independence is that which is sacrificed. If we truly observe and feel the death of an other, we are moved to live by Wisdom rather than knowledge. Wisdom is the presumption of alignment with the Way or Process of existence, which is Sacrifice. But knowledge is only a reflection of or about the way things work. The knower is independent, not a participant in the process that is observed. But Wisdom is always already confounded, relieved of independence, so that there is no option but to submit to the Process of existence itself."
I did try to format it similar to how it was in each book but it's not a perfect duplication. The 2005 is formatted more like a chanted religious sutra and the 1983 is in normal long prose paragraphs.
Where it ended up in the 2005 edition:
Death is a Perfect Insult
"Human beings live like knowers, striving toward absolute information-but death is a perfect insult that frustrates all knowing.
The death of an other convicts one of one's own death, and makes one wonder.
But no ultimate knowledge comes from this wondering.
Death is the frustration of knowledge.
The knowledge that another has died is itself the frustration of all knowledge.
You are not knowing in your wondering about death.
You are contemplating Mystery, the answerless Paradox of your living existence.
The death of another and the death of "I" confound the entire spectacle and consolation of knowledge.
Death is not the attainment of any state you can know.
Death is sacrifice.
The only way to come to terms with death is to come into a harmony with its process, its course.
And death is sacrifice-not knowledge or a way of ultimate knowledge.
Death is the sacrifice of knowledge, of independence, of experience, and of presumed individual self.
The observation of the death of an other and the conviction of your own necessary death are not means to knowledge but a means to sacrifice.
Sacrifice is the Law.
Knowledge (or separate independence) is that which is sacrificed.
If you truly observe and feel the death of an other, you are moved to live by Wisdom, rather than by knowledge.
Wisdom is alignment with the process of existence, which is Sacrifice.
But knowledge is only a reflection of how things work.
The knower is independent, not a participant in the process observed.
But Wisdom is always already confounded, relived of independence-such that there is no option but to surrender to the process of existence itself."
How it began from the 1983 edition:
DEATH IS A PERFECT INSULT
"We live like knowers, striving toward absolute information, but death is a perfect insult that frustrates all knowing. The death of an other convicts us of our own death, and makes us ponder. But no ultimate knowledge comes from this pondering. Death is the frustration of knowledge. The knowledge that an other has died is itself the frustration of all knowledge. We are not knowing in our pondering over death. We are contemplating Mystery, the answerless Paradox of our living existence. The death of an other and the death of "I" confound the whole spectacle and consolation of knowledge. Death is not the attainment of any state we can know. Death is sacrifice. The only way to come to terms with death is to come into a harmony with its Process, its way. And death is sacrifice, not knowledge or a Way of ultimate knowledge. Death is the sacrifice of knowledge, of independence, of experience, and of self.
The observation of the death of an other and the conviction of one's own necessary death are not a means to knowledge but a means to sacrifice. Sacrifice is the Law. Knowledge or secure independence is that which is sacrificed. If we truly observe and feel the death of an other, we are moved to live by Wisdom rather than knowledge. Wisdom is the presumption of alignment with the Way or Process of existence, which is Sacrifice. But knowledge is only a reflection of or about the way things work. The knower is independent, not a participant in the process that is observed. But Wisdom is always already confounded, relieved of independence, so that there is no option but to submit to the Process of existence itself."
I did try to format it similar to how it was in each book but it's not a perfect duplication. The 2005 is formatted more like a chanted religious sutra and the 1983 is in normal long prose paragraphs.
January 27, 2021
I am a minister helping people with the death process and this is my bible ! Profound Wisdom.
April 18, 2023
These essays didn’t mesh with me nor change my expectations of death, perhaps because I have experienced near-death and accept the inevitable, or perhaps because I don’t care to be preached to.
Death will come when it will; pain is what I hope to avoid.
Death will come when it will; pain is what I hope to avoid.
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